Great War of Norik
The Great War of Norik '''(Noriki: ''Gär Kore'; ''Irqut: 'Romaada') was a disastrous civil war fought between the Natelysta government and republican, nationalist and socialist rebels in Norik from 1852 to the formation of the Republic of Norik in 1856, with lesser conflicts extending into the succeeding years. A turning point in world history, it was the first large-scale war in an industrialized country, and is often seen as having represented a far more destructive form of "total warfare" than had ever been seen before; as many as ten million combatants and fifteen million civilians died during the war, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. The war was precipitated by several factors; rapid industrialization had ballooned the population to 180 million and caused vast migration to urban areas, uprooting people's lifestyles and introducing them to radical new ideas; meanwhile, the increasingly repressive and autocratic Natelysta government under Dmitry Jasenovich and Nikolai Zhetsyev attempt to hold onto control through endless purges and atrocities such as the genocides against Northerner populations known as the ogarra, preventable famines such as the Great Vassa Famine, and the assault on the Reva, the country's parliamentary body. In 1852, three separate groups declared themselves in open rebellion against the Natelysta government: the left-leaning People's Front (PFN) declared the Democratic Republic of Norik in Sarmanck, the Noly nationalist Army of the Republic declared the Noriki Republic in Aslanty, and Northerner leaders declared the Iroba Republic in Porosa. Over the course of the next four years, the rebel groups, in an uneasy alliance, gradually defeated the Natelysta government in Nolytek over a series of brutal, drawn-out battles that devastated broad swaths of the countryside, wrecked several major cities and inflicted civilian casualties on a vast scale; at the same time, the Army of the Republic overwhelmed and defeated the People's Front, leading to their control over the drafting of the Noriki Constitution of 1856 and the resulting government under Iosef Medev. When the Iroba Republic, which had largely won the war in the west, declined to join the republic, the Noriki army marched to Porosa and slaughtered the Iroba leaders in the Day of Red Flowers, ending the short-lived separatist experiment and establishing Norik within its current borders. Origins The Great Congress (''Koregovanav) of Aslanty happened on April 17, 1852 in the provincial government building. Some two hundred people met to discuss, and eventually came forward with a declaration - the Noriki Declaration of Rights - which was authored and signed by six of the leading members of the congress: Milan Kubarek, Danil Khoury, Ilan Mazdak, Ilan Zröd, Dmitry Khogorin and Pàl Zanko. All of these figures had, at times, been affiliated with the Natelysta government and defected. They represented a wide range of political views - Khogorin and Zanko were socialists, while Kubarek was a liberal-democratic Noriki nationalist, as were Khoury, Mazdak and Zröd to varying degrees, although Khoury had notable Noly nationalist sympathies, as did Mazdak, and Zröd had a sympathy for socialism. The Declaration of Rights, thereby, served as a strict compromise; it referenced only the "Noriki people" and never used the word "Noly;" it referenced the rights to "life, liberty and property" along with the "moral imperative of all Noriki people to live free of the chains and shackles of authoritarianism and oligarchy." Together, these six became the leaders of would what be known as the Drash, or the Alliance.